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August 2012 Goal Check-In and 5 for September

Posted Sep 03 2012 4:30am

Morning Friends!

I hope your long weekend has been amazing, relaxing, and full of fun so far. As mentioned on Friday, I spent mine celebrating August birthdays with my mum. She just got back from a big trip with her girlfriends, and I hadn’t seen her since before my trip to Vancouver, so we had lots of photo sharing to do. We were also celebrating something else, but I’ll get to that shortly!

As I’m sure was the case for you too, August flew by and I can’t believe it’s time to do another goal check-in already. The other day, I was about ready to take some of my magazines out to the recycling bin, but then I realized that before I know it, it’ll be time to create a new vision board for 2013! Ok, maybe it’s not that soon, but we’re only 4 months away! Looking back on the 5 goals I set for August, I’m pretty proud of myself for getting them all done on time. Here’s a breakdown of my progress:

Working towards this goal made me realize that photography challenges can be a lot of work! If you read my initial post announcing this self-imposed challenge, you may recall that the purpose was for me to improve my photography skills. Each day had a theme or object assigned to it, and I was supposed to take photos of something that represented that theme. While I did manage to collect 31 photos for the month of August, I can’t say that I always took the pictures on the designated days. For example, I used several of my photos from Vancouver all throughout the challenge. I’ve posted all of them, as well as my schedule for the assignment, on the August Photography Challenge page .

Due to time constraints, the images I’ve included are a mix of proper (DSLR) pics and Instagram ones. I’d love to do another one of these in the fall, and spend more time getting creative with each day’s theme. Nevertheless, it was still a lot of fun! Here are a couple of my favourites:

Day 21: Summertime – You can find this recipe by clicking on this photo.

Day 22: Sunset

Day 27: Fruit

Did anyone else do a photo-a-day challenge for August? How did it go?

Done and done!! I LOVED this book and if you’re looking for some motivation in the fitness department these days, I strongly encourage you to buy it now!!!! Kathryn Bertine is a professional cyclist and in 2006, she was given an assignment from ESPN. They wanted to see if she could make it to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, in any sport of her choice. She had 2 years to train and ESPN promised to pay for all of her travel and training. Prior to this, Kathryn was an Iron Man triathlete, so she had never concentrated solely on road cycling and had a lot of learning to do. In 2 years and 295 pages, she tells the story of her Olympic quest. To say Kathryn is persistent would be the understatement of the century. Within the 2 years, she faced an enormous amount of rejection and had several doors slammed in her face, leaving her with little hope. Did she give up? If your guess is yes, you don’t know her yet….. and that’s just another reason why you NEED to read this!!

As I explained at the beginning of August, I won PavementRunner‘s “Pave It Forward” giveaway, and the prize was this book. The whole idea behind the giveaway is to read the book, then pass it on to someone else to enjoy. We want to see how far the book will travel, and each recipient writes their name and location inside the front page. It’s my turn to give it away, and I will be doing just that next week. The giveaway will be open to everyone, no matter where you live, and I’ve got a fun little surprise to go along with it. Don’t forget to check back here next Monday!

I’ve already gone into great detail about this in Part 1 and Part 2 of my race recaps, but long story short, yes, I DID cross the finish line smiling. Pain free? Well, if it’s my Achilles tendinitis that I dealt with for 10 weeks prior to the half marathon that we’re talking about, then yes to that too! My ankle was 100% fine for the entire race and one of the thoughts that kept going through my head as I huffed along was how thankful I was to be able to run again. As you may have already read, I somehow managed to sprain my SI joint early on in the race which has caused a different type of pain altogether. It didn’t hinder me from finishing in 1:33:58, only 56 seconds slower than my PR, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t in pain as I crossed the finish line. That’s all in the past now though, and looking back, I’m so, so happy about everything that went on that weekend.

It was truly one of the biggest highlights of the summer. Now I’m wondering if I should do another one in 2013 and set my sights on a sub-1:30:00 half marathon…. hmmmm……

YES I DID!! Not going to lie either, on Friday, I was quite happy to be finishing up my last 50! Push-ups are such an amazing total-body exercise and I know my form has become a lot better since I declared this goal at the beginning of the month. They really do get easier the more you practice, I promise!! Even better is the fact that I know I’ve become stronger because I can do all 50 consecutively, rather than taking breaks in the middle. Anyone wanna have a little push-up contest?

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This wasn’t a difficult one! I feel like this entire month has been spent celebrating. There were birthday treats in Vancouver (mostly in the form of Lululemon clothing), as well as the weekend of my birthday which was spent in Toronto at the Can Fit Pro 2012 conference. On the actual day (August 15th), I got a lovely card from my super amazing spin class, and spent the evening with some of my besties. I think I’ve had a total of 4 birthday dinners this month, and the majority involved salmon. (I told you, it might just become my new last name!) I’m so lucky to have been able to spend my birth month with so many important people in my live – my mum, dad, long-time friend Lauren , and friends from work, the gym, and university. Blessed I am indeed!

What’s happening in September?

More goals of course! Here’s what I’ll be focusing on this month:

1. Settle into work and my new role!

What’s this you ask? Yep, it’s what you think: I got a new job! I recently resigned from my job in order to pursue another full-time marketing opportunity at another company. I’m so excited about the work, the new people, and the new environment, so this month I want to focus most of my energy into getting to know people and getting up-to-speed on the things I need to know.

2. Decrease the amount of weight I need for assisted chin-ups.

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to be able to do 10 unassisted chin-ups and pull-ups. While pull-ups (the wide-grip ones) are still a ways away, I’ve been making some significant upper body strength gains that are making chin-ups (close-grip, easier ones) not as difficult as they used to be. For 3 sets of 10, the assisted pull-up machine currently supports about 25% of my total body weight. I want this number to come down before the end of September!

3. Do yoga and/or meditate at least twice per week.

I know what you’re thinking: “If that girl paid us a nickel for every time she said she was going to do more yoga, I’d be rich!” I know this goal has popped up a few times this year, but this month, I mean it. After choosing to rebalance my life last month, and having been through 2 recent injuries, staying in tune with my bod is of the utmost importance!

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4. Journal at least 3x per week.

Like meditation, this is one of those relaxing activities that I find relaxes me. It’s also one of my overall goals for 2012 that I’ve been slacking on, so I’m applying extra effort this month. I already know I’ll have lots to write about!

5. Clean out my closet!

Right now, I’m refusing to pull out my fall clothes because I’m in denial that summer is coming to an end. However, I also know that my fall wardrobe could use a little sprucing up. I won’t be letting myself do any shopping prior to going through what I already have, so one of these weekends is going to be spent mixing, matching, trying on, tossing, and donating!

PHEW!! Ok, I know that was a lot! But just before you go, tell me…

How did you do on your goals for August?

What are you working towards this month? It’s a brand new one, full of possibilities! Let’s hear what you’ve got!